


Same Stars Shining.

by Ennessee



Category: Assassin's Creed, Assassin's Creed Rogue
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-07-26
Updated: 2017-01-04
Packaged: 2018-04-11 09:27:15
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 11
Words: 19,337
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4430066
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Ennessee/pseuds/Ennessee
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>This is Assassin's Creed Rogue told from Liam's point of view. What was going on among the Colonial Assassins while Shay hunted them down? How does betrayal and seeing everything around you wither feel like?</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> In my opinion, Assassin's Creed Rogue is the most underrated and neglected AC game. The matter is, everybody focused so much on Unity that it felt like no one paid attention to it.
> 
> I would like to narrate the game story from another point of view to undo some of the knots and explore some dark corners of Shay's story. Let me know what you think!

Summer had never been hotter. 

This year, even the bees were too fatigued by the heat to swarm around the lush bushes which grew around the Homestead, and the trees sag their branches as if pleading for a drop of fresh water. As I walked up the path that lead to the training camp, sweating in my heavy robes, I spotted with the corner of my eye Adèwalé walking towards me.

“Liam. Have you got a moment for me?” he asked.

Hearing these words, I stopped and waited for him to catch up with me. “Sure”

“Achilles has told me you are his second in command” he said with interest, “so I thought we could have a talk before my departure”

“Sure”

“It is about the Precursor Box that has been stolen in Haiti” he said with grave eyes.

“Stolen? What do you mean?” I asked with concern. We could not afford the Templars to get hold of such a precious object, not now that we were so close to an answer.

“Well, as you already know the man who was sent out to the temple never made it back. Was it for the earthquake or for Templar action, we cannot say. Yet we know for sure that our enemies have taken advantage of the commotion to steal the artefacts, and now they are searching far and wide for someone who might be aware of how to activate them” he concluded sighing and sitting down on a fallen log.

“What do you mean, activate it? Mackandal men have activated it before; the Templars will surely haunt them until someone confesses”

“That is not possible. Mackandal has activated the box on his own and he refuses to talk about how it works, or even what it tells for the matter. I am afraid for him. he is getting insane. If he sinks the Haitian brotherhood, it would be a terrible toll for us”.

“He won’t” I said, but I felt an eerie feeling getting hold of my stomach. “So, what do you think these temples contain?”

\--------   
“Look who’s back! You’ve lost a very good bowl of supper tonight” welcomed me Shay as I entered the room we shared.

“Really?” I asked, too tired to feel interested.

“Yes. Tasted like sweated shoe. Seems like one of the boys has forgotten the pot on the fire for way too long” he said yawing from his bed. As usual, Shay was lying down with his shoes still on, too lazy to get undressed and too talkative to get under the sheets. 

I rubbed my tired eyes with my hands. “Tomorrow is going to be a long, long day. There is a lot of work to be done in the following months” I mumbled, already thinking about what had to be done on the following morning. Then I turned around in the room and noticed that something was definitively wrong.

“Shay! What the bloody hell have you done in here?” I asked, “You tidy up this mess now!”

“Calm down! I could not find my nightshirt so I looked for your old one. Tomorrow I will tidy up”

“Did you really need to turn all the drawers upside down?” .There were items of clothing scattered everywhere on the floor, the shutters of the wardrobe had been left opened and my bed looked like it had been searched by some wild beat. I have always been a tidy person and that sort of mess always make my stomach sick.

“I will tidy up tomorrow” Shay said with evident awe in his voice. 

“We are Assassins. We are meant to be precise and organized. What if some of our brothers—“

“What? Entered in here and found your underwear all over the place?” he said with a smirk.

“You’ll regret that!” I exclaimed laughing. I opened his drawer and began to throw the items it contained to him.

About an hour later we were each lying in our own bed, silently waiting for sleep. It was after evening like these, when exhaustion was eased by a friendly war with my brother, that I thanked the sky for having me shoved into this life. A painful, tiring, harsh life, but a life I lived side by side with my brothers and sister. The life that had called me and to whom I answered. Yet it is when we have to face the extremes of it – death, defeat, betrayal- that we waver and risk to fall. 

Sometimes I ask myself: if I had known what was to happen, would my choices have still been the same?


	2. Fate

“Are you sure it is wise to sent Shay on his own?” I asked, looking at the Mentor. I had to keep my concern hidden to him, but I doubted he was thinking straight right now.  
“Yes. We must trust the boy. It is about time we do” he replied looking in front of himself but not actually focusing on anything in particular. His eyes were numb with grief, his usually attentive glaze devoid of any link with the world.   
I walked uncomfortably to the other end of the room. “It is dangerous. There might be Templars waiting for him in Europe. In case of need, he’ll have no one to turn to. Let me go with him”   
“No!” he exclaimed, standing up violently. His movement caused the chair to fall to the floor with a disturbing noise. “I need you here. It is imperative. Shay must learn to look after himself” he concluded with sudden anger. Then he sat down again and took his face in his hands.  
“Leave me alone, Liam. Please” he said simply.   
For a long moment, I looked at him. He might not have been in the condition of taking any coherent decision, but he was still my Mentor. I had no chance: I bowled my head and reluctantly left the room. 

Since the terrible illness which had taken the life of some of our brothers, among whom also the Mentor’s family, the Homestead had fallen in total chaos. However, I could not allow all of our efforts to be destroyed, so in the end it was me and Hope who had taken charge of the situation. God bless for her, for I had never known before a woman – or a man for the matter- with such a gift for organization and management. It was thanks to her that we we didn’t fall apart.  
Now, though, walking down the narrow path of the Two Bends, I seriously started to doubt Achilles’ decision. I knew Shay was going to be enthusiastic about his departure, and especially by the fact that he was to leave on his own. However, there was no way my friend was ready for a mission such as this. Shay was skilled when it came to action and planning, that was true, but you needed more than skill when dealing with the Precursors: study and faith are essential, not to mention the fact that the content of the Temple could be damaged by his lack of experience in the handling of the artefacts.   
There was not much I could do anyways, so I decided to have a talk with him instead in the hope of cramming some sense in his ‘happy head’, as I usually called it when joking. 

Before I even set foot on the Morrigan, I heard the crew’s chattering and loud enthusiasm.  
“What is going on here?” I asked, where is the captain?” No answer.   
I could never have had my own ship. I am not a patient man in these circumstances. So instead of insisting on the matter, I assumed that Shay was in his cabin.  
“You will never believe it” said Shay as soon as I opened the door, “I have to go to Lisbon by myself”  
“Well, aren’t you happy? Here’s your chance to prove your value to the Brotherhood” I readily replied.   
The floor of the cabin was covered in paper and pieces of veil fabric were thrown everywhere. It was even difficult to spot a chair.  
“I am looking for the fake travel documents I got some months ago but I can’t find them” he said. His voice did not sound joyful as usual, and his expression was not even relaxed.  
“We need to talk” I said.  
“I am all ears”.  
“You have to be careful, Shay. This is an important task” I began.  
“I know. All our tasks are important, Liam”  
“This in extra important. You have to be focused day and night once you get there, Shay. Understood?”  
“And here it goes the big annoying brother” he grumped.   
“Call me as you wish, but heed my words. I will not be there to save your a—e this time, you understand me? If you get in trouble, no one will be there to help you out of it” I said. I have to be calm I reminded myself. If I allowed my instinct to take over, I knew it wouldn’t bode well for any of us.  
“I will not. Listen. I am not even sure I can talk to you about this” he blurted, stopping his frantic search among the paper and looking at me, “It is a secret mission. I swore not to tell anything to anyone”  
“Well, I am not anyone” I snapped, “I have been informed of your departure even before you knew”  
“Really? Then why aren’t you the one leaving? Can’t Achilles do without his guard dog? ” he growled, twisting his face in anger, and a moment later in hurt.   
I took a deep breath. “Don’t be stupid, Shay. Just because you have overheard Adèwalé speaking about the box does not make you an expert on the matter”  
“You are only envious. You are furious with me because it is I who is going there. I have been chosen, not you”  
“Not at all. I am just here to tell you not to be impulsive, not to rush things, not to act without thinking or without a plan, just as you normally do!” I yelled.  
God Almighty. I did sound like an annoying older brother. No, I sounded more like a hopeless prick, but there was some truth in what I said, because Shay lowered his eyes and sighed. In that instant, he appeared so fragile and defenceless to me that I felt like like a worm.  
“I am sorry. I should have encouraged you. Instead here I am, telling you off like a heartless bastard” I finally said.  
“You are a heartless bastard” he said, but this time there was a smile on his lips.  
“I am just worried, Shay, can’t you see that? Vendredì has never returned. They haven’t even found his body. Who would be searching for you if something happened? No one would care, you would just... be left there, to rot the Lord knows where” I said, my throat suddenly drying up. Just like my father, I would have added if he hadn’t closed me in a brotherly embrace.  
“You don’t have to worry, Liam. Nothing will happen to me. I have gone through much worse, remember?”

“ I will be home in no time to annoy you!” Shay laughed while he climbed up the ship’s ladder.  
I smiled at him and waved back.  
That was the last time I ever heard him cheer.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I hope you enjoyed!


	3. Flames

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello everyone!
> 
> Here is the new chapter for the story. Sorry for the slow update, school is about to start and this year I have extra exams in September... I am changing school and there’s tons of stuff I need to revise.   
> I hope you enjoy!

I remember that January night well. The sky was howling in rage, spitting and tossing snow against us. The weather was so freezing that hardly anyone dared to venture out, let alone in the evening

Everything seemed to bode well for us:  this new year had already brought us a discrete amount of wealth from smuggling and a handful of recruits. All in all, I felt slightly more confident than usual even though this did not mean I afforded myself any rest.

I hadn’t heard form Shay yet. The last news about him dated weeks and weeks before, when a mercantile ship had reported us to have seen his vessel docking on a small Portuguese island to refill.  Even though I knew that returning would take more than going because of the impetuous winter sea, Shay was due any moment now.

Only, I had not expected him on that very same evening.

I was warming up in front of the fireplace. It was about time to go to bed but I did not feel like sleeping at all. I had had a long and angry argument with a couple of my brothers- among whom also Hope- about the organization of the next expedition to the South, and after an hour of pointless quarrelling I had turned to the Mentor, wishing for him to make a final decision. Instead, Achilles had resolved by carrying on staring in the fireplace, not even listening to my words.

“So?” I had growled in the end, “who is going to the damn location to retrieve the damn logs?”

There had been a pause. “I don’t know” he had resolved after a while, “I don’t think we need logs. We can burn dead leaves instead”. His tone was so flat that my anger deflated.

“What about we send Olivier and June?” I had asked with a kinder voice, “they are the youngest. They might need some practice”

I saw him nodding.

“With this scarce visibility, I would rather send more skilled agents. They might get attacked any moment”

“No. Liam is right” the Mentor suddenly blurted, “do whatever he says”

“Shall I send for them?”

“Do as you wish”

“Well, I would like a second opinion” I insisted.

Achilles turned his head and stared at me. He looked like a sick men, his eyes circled in black and all his vigour drained from his face.

“Right”

“Well?”

“Liam” called Hope, her voice slightly upset “let him be”.

 

And so now I was in my room, the weight of Shay’s absence suddenly heavy on me. Strange to say, I had never imagined I would miss my friend this much. He was the only one to understand  my upset mood, shared it, even.

 Just as I had sat down to the desk for my evening work, I heard the door downstairs slam. Had Hope lost her patience, at last? Then words hit my ears. More than words, shouting.

“Shay!” I exclaimed to the empty room. He must have been back.  But then, why here? He almost never set foot inside the Homestead. Maybe he had come looking for me here after he had found our room in the other building empty. But then, why such commotion?

I listened for a moment longer, then rushed downstairs to see what was going on.

 

“You knew! You knew, you bastard!” were the first meaningful words I understood among the blur of sounds.

“What the hell is going on here?” I yelled. Hope was pushing Shay away from the room, towards the door while he delicately but stubbornly resisted her.

I paid no attention to what Shay was saying. My only concern was to get him out of there before he crossed the line and made it impossible for me to bring him back to reason.

“What on earth do you think you are doing?” I yelled to him once I managed to drag him out of the house.

* * *

 

“Liam, it was horrible” he blurted, hardly allowing me to finish my sentence. “Houses came crumbling down, and people run all over the place and the children... oh, the children!”

I took a moment to look at him. His beard was overgrown, his features contorted in anger and hurt. Among all that, however, I spotted a consuming grief.

“It must have been terrible” I said, lowering my voice and speaking in a kinder way, “but what does the Brotherhood have to do with this?”

“What do you mean, ‘what it has to do with it?’ everything! Don’t you see, Liam? It happened in Haiti as well. When they opened that damn thing, when they took that damn artefact away from its place, the earth came crumbling down!” his voice rose steadily till he was shrieking.

“Shut up, Shay!” I urged him, noticing a small group of people not too far from us. I took him by his arm and walked him further away from the house.  “You cannot be right” I concluded, “There aren’t any Precursor sites with such power, Shay. No one ever mentioned such a thing” I concluded.

“You don’t believe me, then? Not even you?” his mood swung again. This time, his eyes filled with tears. “you don’t? You think I made this up?” his voice was shaky and unstable. I couldn’t stand that. I could not stand him crying. I could not stand anyone crying, as a matter of fact. It made me feel vulnerable, like a reminder that it could happen to me too, that I also am a human.

“You don’t have to worry, Shay. We’ll have this sorted out, you see. Now go for a walk and chill down”

“No. I don’t want to”.

Instead, I took him by the elbow and dragged him along with me. He did not react, as if he was some kind of doll. His body went limp, but he did not oppose me, either.

Once we reached the small valley safe from the wind, I stopped and kneeled down.

“Here. I am going to light a fire. Have you eaten yet?”

Having no response, I turned to him. He had sat on a fallen log, his eyes fixed into the void as he turned a stick in his hands.

“I can bring you some food”

“I want no food”

“Then what the hell do you want? What is it, Shay?” I stood up with sudden desperation, my finger burning for the incandescent stone I held tightly in my hand. I could not bear to see him like that.

“What has happened in Lisbon?”

“I have told you” he said simply, but his look was still absent.

“Tell me again”

“I touched the artefact. It disintegrated. Then the earthquake, pieces of bricks and stone falling everywhere. And then the houses came down, all the buildings. One by one. Trapping people beneath them. And do you know what I have done? I ran. I ran for my life. I left them there”

“But what about the artefact?”

“Bloody hell the artefact!” he shouted, standing up in anger, “People have died!”

“All right. Right”

“No. You don’t believe me yet, do you?”

“I haven’t said that. I just need to know more”

“You must believe me. Please...” he whispered. “I should have died. I should have died there” he added in a whisper.

“What?” I exclaimed “What are you blabbing about?”

“Come here, Liam. Please” he whimpered. The crying voice again. The tears.  “Please tell me you believe me”

“I do. I do believe you”. I dropped the flint on the ground, moving towards him. “I will help you. After you cool down”

He stretched his arms forward. “Please. Please... we must burn it, burn it, burn it...” I was not listening to him. I closed him in a short brotherly embrace, wishing for his words not to be true.

“Just promise me. Promise me that you will go inside and tell them to burn the damn thing” he said among sobs. Desperate sobs.

I felt my stomach churning inside me. He was crying at last, with his hands childishly covering his eyes, like a harmless and desperate baby. Venting himself would do him good, but I still had to keep my feet on the ground.

“No. I cannot assure you that”  
“What?” he said, stepping back.

“We’ll have a talk about this. We will decide in the morning. You do not need to be concerned on the matter any longer”

“You are cutting me out of this?” his face showed his exhaustion, and everything that he must have been feeling in the past weeks.

“I am saying... Leave this be, Shay. Leave this in our hands”

“You don’t know what you are messing with”

“We do. It is an ancient manuscript, Shay. We cannot simply destroy it. We will talk about it in the morning” I concluded. My feet felt sore and my head had begun to ache. “Stay here. When you feel better just come back to our room. I will be there. If you need someone to talk to”.

But I never did. I never quite settled down for the night, for I sensed something was about to happen, and I was right.


	4. Falling

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Here is a new chapter. I hope you like it! Comments and corrections are very much appreciated!

I knew Shay too well.  

I knew he would not rest, and that when he had something on his mind there was no way he would

stand back and wait for his turn to speak. And so did also Hope and Achilles, because they waited for me to leave Shay to his thoughts before summoning me straight away. 

"What do you think of the matter?" Asked me Hope as I entered the room. Her eyes were slightly widened, as if she were afraid. But I knew she wasn't.

"We must tread carefully. Shay was out of himself. Something must have happened" said our Mentor with his usual calm. 

"He insulted you" I stated, "there is no excuse for that".

"Liam! He was in a high distress. That is not even the point" retorted Hope "The problem is, what to do with the damn artefacts? We all know he is out there, just waiting for us to go to sleep to sneak in and do God knows what with it. And he would be right"

"No he wouldn't" I snapped, "the Manuscript and the Box are relicts. As any other Precursor artefact they must be treasured and studied. We don't know if Shay handled the thing carelessly and it all ended up in a mess. We have no idea about what happened"

"That is hardly the point" said Achilles. "It is not about the Manuscript, it is about his attitude. He is not thinking right now, and he could do something... Extreme".

"Yes, Shay would do that" I confirmed, "It is risky to leave him like this. But we cannot destroy the artefacts, either".

"We need to talk to him" 

"We should go straightaway" interrupted Hope again, "there is no time to lose. If there is any rational explanation for the tragedy that has happened, he has all the right to know. It must have been terrible for him".

We did not have time to speak further. As Hope had finished this sentence, we heard a muffled clinging noise. 

"It is him" she said, standing up all of a sudden. "Let me talk to him"

So we looked at our leader stand up and exit the door. Only when he was in the corridor did we dare to breath.

"This will lead to no good. Let's go and gather the others" said my friend.

I nodded thoughtfully and took the route for the exit on the roof. 

* * *

 

 No need to say, all the Assassins had practised countless times the procedure to take in case of an attack. This time, however, when it was made official that we had to take our positions, a gasp run among the youngest adepts. 

'It's one of us' they all seemed to ask. But none of them did, because we all obeyed our Mentor without questioning his choices. 

I remember it as a nightmare. The chase, the smell of gunpowder, the dreading possibility of killing one of our own brothers. Even after a long time, I could recall the details of that night with painful vivacity.

And then there was Chevalier, blinded by rage and desire of revenge. He fired without mercy on our own heads with his mortars until it appeared clear to him that he was making more damage than good. Then he stopped, but somehow I now wish he hadn't. 

When it appeared clear to everybody that Shay, was trapped in a corner with no way to escape, I almost sighed in relief. Almost. 

 

"Stop!" Screamed someone from behind our shoulders. 

"That's enough!" I screamed, hoping that my tone had enough authority to bring him back.

Next came Hope. She was soft and somehow persuasive with him. She was always softer with him.

"I cannot!" He blurted out at last. His voice sound broken, and his eyes, I was sure, were already filling again. 

"So many people have died because of me! One more hardly matters".

Those words triggered something inside of me. _He is killing himself_  I thought as I leaped forward in a desperate attempt to close the gap between us.

 "Shay!" I screamed with all myself, striking panic in my voice. It was then that I saw Chevalier pointing the pistol and firing.

 "Nooo!"

* * *

I cannot describe the horror I felt when I heard Shay’s body hit the ice below. He uttered a weak, pained scream, and then silence.

I stopped breathing. The world around me froze for a moment, and my vision blurred completely.

As if I was watching the scene with a spyglass, I noticed that my hand lowered the flintlock, and that a bent figure was screaming in agonizing pain over the edge of the cliff, right were my friend had fallen. A part of me heard the sough of the wind, and wadded footsteps on the snow. All was white. For miles and miles, the world was covered in candour, with a wooden blanket which eased away our pain. Only the sky looked down at me with ferocity, with its blue, widened eyes. Not even a star shone in the horizon. Only that blasted wind, howling and slapping. And that voice, more like the moaning of a wounded animal. In the end, it was that sound which brought me down onto Earth.

All sounds came back at once. People speaking, screaming, yelling directions at each other. Our Mentor had already given the order of forming a research party. Most of the younger adepts, the ones Shay and I had rescued from the streets, had begun to fret and were running haphazardly to and fro. Some yelled Shay’s name among tears, others crouched in a corner and silently cried.

I almost envied them. They were just children. They could afford that luxury.

Around me, the place began to hustle with activity. Yet, I remained still. And so did Hope. She was the figure on the edge of the cliff, howling her pain in a heartbreaking manner. Was it that she could see Shay from here?

I did not dare to approach her. I did not dare to come near the cliff, because I was too afraid to look down and see my friend’s body, his eyes wide opened, yelling for help. He had called out, and I... I had not paid enough attention. I had let him escape, and hurt himself.

Images from the past fluttered in front of my eyes.

I had to get away from there.

“Hope...” I prayed after a while. The sound came out distorted and barely audible. I could hear them, now. The ones who had been sent to inspect the area. ‘Maybe they will bring him back’ I thought, but deep inside I knew there could be no such thing.

“Please .... “ I moved a step forward, then another. She kept on crying, but she had become quieter, now.

“You... you could slip” I said with husky voice. She sobbed harder, but did not move.

“Do it for him... and for me. Please”. I stretched an arm forward. Silently, she turned. I barely recognised her, with that huge cloak she had thrown on her shoulders, and with her raw-red eyes and tear-stained face. When she got near enough, I pulled her arm and closed her in embrace.

“Don’t do this to me, little sister, don’t ...” I prayed in her ear. I could feel tears prickle the side of my eyes. They felt boiling hot and too large to be human. I allowed myself to let them stream down silently before taking Hope’s hand and making our way towards the Homestead. Seeing her in such a way broke my heart: she was always so strong, so independent... yet, here she was now, mourning the loss of our friend. Deep inside, she was still frail and fearsome when it came to let go of people she cared about. Only, this time she could not hide her feelings, because she, too, had seen it coming.

 ‘I’ll swim all the way to New York, but I will find Shay’ I promised myself as I closed the Manor’s door behind me. And there there was Chevalier that had to be dealt with.

It was going to be a long night.

 


	5. Towards New Beginnings

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Here is my new chapter! I wrote this while listening to Tchaikovsky’s Valse Sentimentale. It gave me the boost to write and also created the right atmosphere.

Sometimes I liked to stand by the shore and stare into the sea. I imagined my parents leaving home, crammed with dozens of people in the ship that brought them here. They had been staring at the very same waters, the very same stars, with hope in their eyes and a vision of a new, brighter future. At the time I was nothing but a thought in their minds, but my parents had left their home, their misery, their life for me, for the child they had been dreaming to have. In the end, how had I repaid them? By becoming a thief, a murderer, an assassin. But a man with an aim nonetheless.

* * *

 

 “What shall we do with the Morrigan?” asked me Hope. It was sunset and I had been leaning on the fence for the last couple of hours, staring into the void.

 “I don’t know” I plainly said.

“It is harboured in New York right now. I think it is useless to keep it there, especially if there is a crew to pay”

“I thought you had found better occupation for the crew” I observed.

A small smile appeared on one side of her mouth “I have” then it was gone.

“A ship is a ‘she’, Hope” I said in the end, turning away from her, praying that she would take it as a sign of the end of the conversation. But she didn’t.

“He’s not coming back, Liam” she said after a short while, “you should move on. We all should”

“You don’t seem to have gotten over it yet, either. You have no right to lecture me”

Slowly, she walked to the fence and sat next to me.

“She was my friend, too” she said at last.

“You weren’t the one to lick his wounds when he was sad. You weren’t the one to rescue him from the streets, to-“

“Is this what you are feeding yourself?” she interrupted me, and shook her head in disbelief. “We are all mourning his loss. On different degrees, but we all are. We should be used to it after all, our brothers dying around us. It will be worse with the war raging just a few miles from home” her gaze was lost in an indefinite space in front of her, but there was a sort of interior peace in it, as if she had given up.

This was too much. I could not bear it.

“Don’t you see it?” I exclaimed, jumping up and staring at her with anger burning in my eyes, “We do not even have a body to bury!” I snapped venomously. I took a deep, trembling breath.

She did not answer.

“God knows for how long he must have laid in the freezing water, regretting his choice, even begging for us to come. He will have thought we have abandoned him. That _I_ have abandoned him. And if you hadn’t stopped me, I swear to God I would have thrown myself in those waters and swam after him!” my voice had risen as we spoke until I was screaming like a wounded animal. With a silent gasp I stepped back, slowly regaining control, praying that no tear would escape my eyes.

“This is where you are wrong. You think you are the only one to have had a bond with him. To have cared. To have cried when he disappeared. Don’t you know we all did?”

I raised my eyes to meet hers. Her facial expression was wrinkled in pain, and to my great surprise she did not show strength, but tiredness.

“I have not slept for days. Weeks, even” I quietly replied.

“Nor have I. We were all close to him, Liam. Some of us were friends with him. You might have looked at him as a brother. Someone else might even have loved him in an entirely different way”

After pronouncing these words, she jumped down from the fence and run away.

I looked at her as she disappeared from my sight,

‘Hope is right’ I thought simply. The anger I had been feeling until a few minutes before was gone now, replaced by a dull sense of emptiness. I had always known that Shay looked at our friend with more than simple admiration. His eyes shone with a different light as she looked at Hope: not the usual interest she reserved for his occasional lovers, and not even lust. It was love. As simple as that. On the other hand, I had never been sure his feeling had been corresponded. Not until then, and it struck me.

 I was not the only one to suffer my friend’s absence. I had to go on from that moment on bestowing the burden of his loss on my own shoulders.

* * *

There had been no peace for me after I had escorted Hope back in safe hands. I had begun to run towards the harbour as fast as I could, with snow and wind slapping my face and making my eyes sore with the freezing cold they brought with each gush.

I had arrived just in time to see the research party dock sadly in the harbour.

I felt my blood froze in my veins.

“No...” I said out aloud as a foreign force dragged me forward. Slowly, I moved towards the rowboat, and then leaned to see its inside.

It was empty.

“Where is Shay?” I asked simply, as if it were the most normal thing in the world not to see him around.

A young recruit, Olivier, looked up at me from the boat with red eyes. His fearsome gaze was full of grief. If I hadn’t been out of myself, I would have felt pity for him.

“He is gone” he simply replied.

Maybe it was his simplicity that triggered my reaction.

“What do you mean, gone?” I screamed, filling the distance between us with a single leap. In a moment, I had the collar of his shirt balled in my hand, my nose only inches away from his.

“You bastard” I growled, and God knows what I would have done if a friendly hand wouldn’t have stopped my blind rage.

“Liam. Come away” said Achilles’ voice. He sounded so calm. So calm, yet so afraid. So upset. Yet, he was not showing any feeling. His face remained a mask. Only his eyes looked pained.

“How can you tell me to calm down?” I screamed, throwing myself against him.

“I will drown you in the waters! It is all your fault!” I screamed, my voice so loud that my throat felt sore.

I pushed myself against his limp body, but he did not fall. He just stood there, motionless.

“ It’s all your damned fault if I got into this blasted Brotherhood, if I am so unhappy... if Shay was dragged into this!”

I threw myself again, with more force than the last, but this time I fell to my knees and burst into sobs.

I did not oppose resistance to his soft touch, and as he stroked my short hair I hugged his lower body. I just stood there, crying into his lap, like if I still was the little kid he had brought to the Manor for the first time. But I wasn’t. Everything was so different now, so much more complicated. Things were never going back the way they had been once. I knew that, but it was impossible to accept the crude reality of facts.

I felt the cold penetrating my knees and then right into my heart. I had never been worse. Never had my head ached so much, my thoughts been so negative and torn by grief.

 It had been years, if not decades, that I had cried like that. At least now there was my Mentor holding me, a frail support to hold my pieces in place. When I looked up, his expression looked unfazed, yet I knew that he was hiding so much more. His eyes were deeply pained. I accepted his hand and stood up, drying my tears up with my sleeve as I looked around, fearing the reactions of my students and my brothers. But here, they were all gone. They had respected my sentiment and let me be.

Right then, just when I was looking around, I heard a voice coming from being my shoulders.

“Come now. It is not worth it to cry for that empty-headed idiot. We’ll all be better off without him.”

“Chevalier”I growled, and I went blind. Without waiting for any kind of restriction or encouragement, I stepped right in front of him and punched him on his nose as hard as I could. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I hope you enjoyed reading this! Have a good week!


	6. Doubts and discoveries

First, it was Le Chasseur.  The news of his death reached me while I was at sea, sailing as the Aquila’s new Captain.

The first months in my new role had caused no small amount of trouble to the crew; the ship itself had been damaged because of my lack of experience in manoeuvring it in narrow passages. During this last period, however, Achilles had seemed it fit to hire a first mate to help me with my new role.

Robert Faulkner was a clever man in his mid-thirties. He had a good instinct when it came to the weather forecast and a strong, friendly voice.

“I really can’t see how come the Captain is I, and not you” I told him as Fort La Croix came into view.

“Come on, mate. You are are underestimating yourself” he said kindly. “Now, you might want to watch out. The waters are getting shallower by the minute, and I fear the bottom is too rocky to drop anchor”.

I did as he said: I stirred the ship around until I found the right track.

After the first weeks of silence – obstinate, hostile muteness – I had begun to trust him. Of course it was nothing like what it felt to sail with Shay, but at least it was something.

“I will take care of refilling the tanks. You go mind your business” Faulkner said as the Aquila was safely docked into the bay.

I nodded absent-mindedly as I made my way out of the ship and into the fort. I immediately realised that something was wrong. There were regulars everywhere, some of them gathered around a fire, others simply scattered around, having a look at the place.

“And then... boom! The ship’s cannons wrecked the first tower. Even from our vessel, we could see the debris spiked into the air...”

I pulled my hood up and hid into the nearby bushes. Stealthily, I made my way out of the centre of the red coats’ activity and near to the destroyed entrance of the chief’s office. There was a heap of stones which covered the entrance, but I knew knew immediately that they hadn’t fallen into that place, they had been placed there to cover something bigger.

Le Chasseur had been murdered, not perished following the attack. Without wasting another moment, I began to work, picking up a steady rhythm. It did not take long for me to remove the debris and finally enter the office.

Bloodied footprints had left their mark on the marble; some had even dirtied the walls around. It was a single, thick track of blood which led me to the body. Another one, smeared along the wall, had been traced by five fingers. The whole crime scene was daunting.

On the floor, Le Chasseur was motionlessly staring at the ceiling with blank eyes.

The whole place was lit by the rays that passed through the doorway alone. Without a word, I moved a few steps towards my former ally and knelt down.

“Rest in Peace” I whispered, and then I closed his eyes.

After having done so, I moved to analyse the body.

He had been pierced from side to side with a sword, then lost a lot of blood. But the composure of the corpse and the traces on the floor made me think that le Chasseur had been moved after he had fallen to the ground. By him stood his blade, crusted with a thin layer of red fluid.

Le Chasseur had been assassinated, and then his robes searched, but then respectfully rearranged on the ground: these were my only certainties.

Next, I focused on the battlefield. Besides from the body fluids spilled all over the place, there were pieces of shattered glass and a broken chair on the floor.

I followed the footprints all over the place, careful not to spoil the scene: I even tried to localise a detail, something which could suggest me who the killer had been. But still, nothing.

After a couple of minutes, I left the room. I was somehow discouraged by the lack of evidence about the the culprit, but of course I knew that in this kind of mission the chance of succeeding is very little.

So I walked back to my ship, but just before returning aboard, I overheard something which made me freeze into place.

“Red sails, and one of those fancy ice-rammers on the front ... “

“Of course. One of these privates. The King’s fleet has run out of enthusiasm and strength to do something like this”

A private? How many chances were there than a ‘private’ – or a privateer, for that matter- would take interest in killing a secret agent like the Chasseur?

Acting more on instinct than on reason, I turned towards the man who had spoke and I grabbed him by the collar.

“What are you talking about?” I growled as a terrible doubt insinuated beneath my skin.

The poor man startled and stared at me with fearful eyes. “Leave me! “ he screamed, but then stopped as soon as he caught sight of my hidden blade flashing just a few inches from my throat.

“Answer me. What is this ship which attacked the fort?”

 


	7. Roses and thorns

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you everyone for your support! It means a lot to me :)

Sometimes we assume we have learned everything we can. That life has nothing more to offer us. What more suffering can there be, beyond what we have experienced in the past and we still live every day? This question is asked mainly by those who have not the faintest idea about what pain is like. People who live sheltered in their own crystal worlds. But not I. People like me know that whatever happens, there is still more to come.

* * *

New York was ‘shiny’ that day. This is the word my new associate used to describe it while gazing at the sea from the harbour. The waves reflected the sun’s rays, creating rather pleasant light tricks on the surrounding space. Such splendid view was welcomed by the inhabitants of the city, and especially, summer was. However, there seemed to be as little light as ever, especially considering the epidemics which had decimated the populace and left half the buildings empty. Therefore, life was anything but brilliant that year.

Unless, of course, you are a ten-year-old rascal who has just found a reason to live life again. This was the case of my new assistant, Peter. Unlikely as this might seem, it was the only human being whose presence I could stand after discovering that Shay was probably still alive.

I had found the little thing a few months before in a filthy corner of New York. Noticing his pale complexion and his generally poor health, I had not hesitated to have him visited by a doctor. With the passing of time, I understood that I needed him as much as he needed me, so we had officially become business partners.

“So where are we going, Liam?” he asked once more as I began to make my way through the market, “don’t tell me it’s time to go home already”  
“It’s not. It is time to do some climbing, young man”

“Are we meeting Aunt Hope?”

I stifled a laugh. Hope hated to be called that way. Truth be told, she was rather clumsy around children. I suspected that was because she longed for a more normal kind of life. It was not our case.

“Yes. We are going to visit Hope”

I helped Peter up the roofs and then we began our run. I always wanted to have him in front of my eyes so that in case of need I could reach him in just one leap. However, his physical skills were rather advanced, so that I almost never had to help him.

In the last months Hope had given me rather big amount of concern. Since Shay’s departure she had grown gradually quieter and way too reserved, locking herself up in her manor with books and parchments, hardly speaking to anyone. Yet, I knew her well, and so did our Mentor. We both understood that there was something she was planning. Finally, after weeks imploring her not to act on her own and let us help her, she spoke. She had been researching on gasses with a prominent scientist, Priestly. The man had claimed to have found the ultimate solution to the populace’s problems: a way to cure any infection by sterilising air. After the scientist’s departure earlier that year she had carried on the experiments on her own. Now she claimed to have achieved good results: she was near to the recipe of that gaseous medicine.

 I was sceptical about this whole gas thing. Le Chasseur, too, had always been on my side, proclaiming that nothing good could come out of it. He and Hope had parted on very bad terms, and we suspected that he must have contacted some criminal gang to sabotage our plans. Before he was killed, Le Chasseur must have fomented a powerful enemy against us, that was sure. Suddenly, our factories were being attacked, our reserves decimated and our storehouses looted. This enemy must also have been well acquainted with Assassin ways.

I did not want to jump to conclusion, but the idea that it was Shay hammered in my mind. Hope had further increased my suspicions with her last missive, which was also my reason for this trip to New York.

Now, I focused on the road ahead of me. I signalled Peter to follow me and we both jumped down into the semi-deserted street.

“Now. While I speak with Hope, do me a favour. Hide in the bushes around here and see if someone tries to sneak in” I asked him.

“All right. I will” he said patiently as I waved him goodbye.

 

There were but a few guards in Hope’s manor that day. I found her outside, in the garden. She was wearing a pair of rough gloves and her hair was kept away from her face by a ribbon.

“Gardening?” I asked in disbelief.

“Yes. All my flowers have died” she said with an apparently emotionless voice.

“I am sorry about that. You’ve always been so careful about them”

“You are not here to talk about flowers, I believe?”

“You are right. I have received your letter” I said in the end.

“What do you say about that?” she asked, without bothering to look at me.

“I think it is finally the case we speak about _him_ , Hope. If there is a chance he is still alive” my voice was becoming harsh. I did not want to look severe, but the topic hurt me and I wanted to get over with it. Quickly, too.

“He is. I saw him”

“You saw him?!” I exclaimed with a start. God, she seemed so calm. “What the hell are you talking about?” I raised my voice more. Then, seeing that this was having no effect on her, I knocked the watering can she was holding off her hand.

“I did. I saw Shay” she resumed without a hint of expression.

“So that’s why you are planting your flowers again, right? You are in love. How sweet”

This got her, and pretty badly. She abruptly turned her head towards me, and raised her voice: “What do you expect me to do, Liam? You have just stopped to mourn him; did you expect me to come along and cheerfully say that he is alive? How many times do I have to tell you that this is work? It is work, Liam. Nothing more than that. There is no space for anything else”

Her face had turned hectic red. She was getting angry, so angry that a guard approached with a worried expression. However, she did not give him the chance to come near us: she raised her hand and he walked back rigidly.

“I am sick of your insinuating. And I am sick and tired of the distress going on around here. These last recruits you have sent me are complete idiots. I told Achilles as much”

“There is little he can do about it”  
“There is little about he can do about anything these days, besides getting furious about any trifle. The Brotherhood is going astray” she sighed, and I looked at her with more confidence than I felt.

“It will pass”

“Let’s pray it will”

For a long moment, none of us spoke. We looked at the sky, where the sun kept on shining regardless our suffering down on the Earth. Finally, a whistle interrupted our train of thoughts.

It was a rather awkward whistle. I could have recognised it anywhere.

“Peter!” I exclaimed, rushing towards the gates.

“I can’t believe you carry that boy around, Liam!” Hope commented. I did not have the chance to answer, as in a heartbeat I was already outside the gates, my hidden blades ready to taste blood yet again...

“He’s gone to the left!” Peter exclaimed, pointing his finger excitedly towards in that direction.

Without much thinking I followed his direction, but I immediately understood that it was too late.

“Are you not going to catch him?” he asked as he saw that I had stopped running. There was a hint of disappointment in his voice.

“No, I’m afraid he has hidden already. Hope’s men will see to that. Have you seen the man alright?”

“I have. He was wearing a black coat and a thing like a flintlock on his shoulders, but much longer! And his hair was dark and long and...”

“Hey, wait. That’s a lot of description for someone who was just running around” I said with a laugh

“He wasn’t just ‘ _running around!’_ ” he exclaimed irritated, “he has been staring at the walls ever since you got in. He came out of that bush over here”

I tried not to shudder at the thought of that. _A thing like a flintlock, only much longer..._ How many people were in possession of such a gear in all of New York?

“Come. You have been good. Let’s hear this whole description you have made....”

* * *

“The boy’s better than I thought” said Hope as Peter walked out of her study.

“He is”

“Are you training him to become an Assassin?”

“I... When I took him with me, I was sure that I would. But now, I am having my doubts. I want him to decide with his own head, Hope.... Only, I know this is the right path”

“Mh” she commented without too much conviction. As always, being around Peter had made her nervous. She gulped down something that looked like liquor.

“So, do we have any more doubts, now?” she asked as I helped myself from the same bottle, “The portrait the kid has made is Shay. It _is_ Shay, Liam”  
“I know” I replied simply.

“Great”  
“So where have you met him? You’ve gone messing around again in the gypsy’s quarters?”

“I was at the market. And he was there”

“You? At the market?” she ignored my sarcastic comment and carried on.

“I had heard voices. My men spoke about a man similar to him hanging around here, but I did not believe them. Then I started to look around. He has been around here. He has tried to make contact with me thrice already so far, but I have ignored him.

“Ignored him? Why?”

Deep inside, I knew. Deep inside, I need no further explanation.

“I saw him holding Mrs Finnegan’s basket, that’s why. She must have been the one who has taken care of him”

I did not speak. For a moment, I let the news sink in. Even though I had already imagined that something like this was possible, the confirmation of my hypothesis felt... painful. But it was not the same kind of pain I had felt seeing Shay throwing himself off the cliff. No, because he was not the same man who woke me up at night with his muffled moans when he had a bad dream. This Shay was a Templar.

“I can’t believe how this is turning out to be. We’ll have to kill him, won’t we?”

“I don’t know what it is going to happen. Hardly no one does”

“What about the gasses?”

“He’s been destroying the reserves, if this is what you want to know. He was also the one to kill Le Chasseur”

“How can you be so sure?”

“The description matches perfectly”  
Notwithstanding the situation, I let out a hint of a laugh. “The Mentor has spotted you perfectly among the crowd. You _are_ an excellent Assassin. He was not wrong to have such high expectations on you”

“Sometimes I wish he hadn’t” she replied coldly. Even though something seemed to be wrong with this specific topic, I did not dwell on it.

“There is no time to think about my gasses, now. He will strike, and he knows exactly with whom he is dealing with. We need to be ready”.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I hope you enjoyed! Please leave a comment if you did, I really appreciate that!


	8. Secrets

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Here is a new chapter! I would like to thank a guest who has left the prompt for this chapter. If you enjoy my writing, please leave a review! Hearing from my readers always makes me very happy! :)

That night, I didn’t manage to close my eyes and rest. There were endless voices and faceless shadows talking to me, suggesting that there was not much time for me to live on this Earth. It was certainly not the first time that nightmares tormented me even if I was awaken, but this time everything was worsened by  the fact that my one and truest friend had betrayed both me and the life we had chosen together for his stubborn temper.

I sat up in bed and decided that, had I remained any longer in there, I was going to suffocate. I dressed up quickly, and after a last look at Peter, I left the room. There were always dozens of guards around Hope’s manor, so I decided to pay them a visit and eventually help to patrol the grounds. As always, I found a small group in the hall, chattering in an evident state of disorder and laziness. One of them in particular caught my attention: he was slouching on one of the chairs, his robes in dismay and with little or no intention to remedy to the situation.

“Would you believe that? A _woman_. I, obeying a girl almost half my age. What is happening? The world is upside down, I tell you” it was a guard speaking. It must have been one of the grumpy one who only waited Hope to get asleep to gossip behind her shoulders.

“A woman, yes, but with double the attributes you have” I said clear and loud. The grumpy man startled and immediately stood up.

“I...  That is what I think, sir. I collaborate with women, but I think they are not fit to lead”

“Then your brain is as big as a matchbox” I commented, “You’re stuck in the Middle ages. I never want to hear this nonsense again, understood?”

Reluctantly, he nodded. Then, I turned my back at him and began to walk towards the door that lead to the garden. Just as I was halfway through, I heard the guard’s voice calling me back.

“If you are looking for her, well, my _Mistress_ has visits. I am not sure she would like it to be disturbed”

I stopped in bewilderment and looked at him. There was something in his eyes, a sort of malicious look that almost made me blush. _Almost_ , because I am not a boy any longer.

‘Why do you say that?’

‘She has asked us to leave her alone for tonight. She never does that unless.... well... unless she wants to be completely alone with _someone_ ’

As long as I knew, Hope had never been officially engaged to anyone, nor she had any lovers. I also knew well that it was not my concern. However, there was something suspicious in the air that night. Among all nights, that one was one of the less appropriate to introduce in the house a lover- or any kind of visitor- that you want to keep secret from a skilled and sleepless Assassin. A visit, then? But by whom at this hour of night?

In the end, it was the feeling of something being wrong to induce me to deepen the matter. I knew it was going to be impossible to find Hope if she didn’t want to be found. Her bedrooms- even if I had known their exact location- were surely very well protected, and the same could be said for her studies.

‘It must be somewhere not too far from the guards, so that she can call out for her in case of need. Yet somewhere far enough for me not to see her’ I reasoned as I walked the garden’s path. My eyes drifted to the sky: the stars were perfectly aligned up there, a perfect moment to sail. 

So it was this sudden longing for the open ocean that proved to the the stroke of luck I was so in need of, because among the light of the firmament I noticed a dimmer fire, which I immediately understood to be the flame of a candle.

Without giving it all much deal of thought, I began to climb up the window frames, as quietly and as quickly as I could. Finally, I reached in correspondence of the second floor and dared to peep into the room.

The whole place sounded so peaceful that for a moment I believed to have imagined it all. However, there were unmistakable signs that someone must have been there recently: the open window, the candle stub, half-shut drapes. Taking advantage of those, I climbed in, taking care of making no noise at all. Just when I had settled between the wall and the heavy decorative cloth, I heard it. It was a quick, nervous breath that sounded almost like hiccup. The person who produced it was desperately trying to calm himself down and to remain undetected at the same time, but was miserably failing.

There was just one person in New York, maybe in the whole Earth, that breathed like that.

I instantly knew it was Shay.

What was he doing there? Had he managed to sneak in undetected, taking advantage of Hope’s distraction? Was he the one who planned to send a visitor all along so that he could sneak in and kill her? Or had he followed me and the target was I?

In the end, none of my hypothesis proved to be right, for Hope entered the room and immediately locked the door behind her.

“He is gone back to sleep”

“God. Can’t I have a word with him later?”

“I doubt that’s a good idea. He’s still furious”

There was a small silence following this. Not able to contain myself anymore, I peeped in the room only to find a much different Shay from the naive Assassin I had left.

He was wearing Templar robes, the same one the Templar Finnegan had worn years before we ended his life, and his hair were tied back in a tail. The worst part of it, though, was the scar I glimpsed on his face. It was an immortal trace of what had happened, and from his look I understood that he was still trying to learn to cope with his sorrow.

_Oh, brother. What have I done?_

“Have you told me everything, then?”

“I have told you the reason of my shift of allegiances”

“Is that all?” Hope asked. Her tone was not cold: it looked like the old times, when we went back to report her the outcome of a mission with her gangs.

“No, Hope. It is not. I came here to explain because I want you to understand. I t costs me my life to go away. I know that I am doing the right thing, now”  
“If you believe, so. I... I wish there had been time to explain. You know, now we are enemies. If we ever meet again, you will try and kill me” she said with a flat voice. ‘She is trying to manipulate him’, I immediately understood. I was right, because in the next instant Shay readily replied:

“No! What are you saying? I could never do that to you”

“The day will come that you will have to. This is war, Shay.”

“But-“

“But what?”  
“My Grandmaster is an honourable man. He will understand. There could even be a truce!”

Hope let out a dry laugh. “It is a dream, Shay. It will never come true, and I can see that deep inside you have remained the same”

“I have. I have, only... I woke up”

For a long moment, no one spoke. They were simply staring at each other, and now the light casted soft droplets of light on their faces, so that it looked like they were swimming in the air.

“What will you do now? Will you keep hovering around here?”

“Yes. Until you convince yourself that all of this is wrong” he replied, and he stretched his arm forward to take her hand, which she did not retrieve from his touch.

“I will not. I can’t. You... you go away. Stay out of this place for a long time, clear your head, and give me time time to recoil” Hope said in the end, stepping back and allowing him one last glance before darting out of the room.

“...Hope!” Shay exclaimed, his voice loud and desperate. The sound of those two simple syllables fully awakened me, and suddenly I realised the gravity of what was going on around me.

Without giving it a great deal of thought, I jumped out of my hiding place, ready to face Shay myself. And I would have, if only...

... if only Hope hadn’t run back into the room and threw herself right into Shay’s arms, letting him kissing her boldly and without restrictions.

I stood there, agape, thoughts and questions cluttering my mind, unable to take my eyes off them. It looked like they were needed each other to keep living, and as the time passed they deepened their kiss and held each other tighter with the determination and desperation of two lovers finally aware of their forbidden love.

I had just stepped back in my hiding place when they let go of each other, wondering: what comes next? We were not children any longer. What was I to do? Step in and tear them apart?

No, I knew Hope better than that. As a matter of fact, she stepped back and shook her head sadly.

“I... I am sorry, Shay. I truly am”

“But...”

She took him by the collar and pulled him so near to her that their noses were touching.

“I wish we had lived another life. I wish we hadn’t been born in the misery of war and conflict. If that were the case... who knows, I might even have given you a chance” she whispered  with a pained expression and an almost shaky voice. Then she leaned forward to press a delicate kiss on his forehead. “Next time we see each other, only one of us will remain alive. Farewell, Shay”

I followed my former friend with my eyes as he passed near to me and jumped out of the window and into the garden. Then I looked at Hope, kneeling motionless of the floor to recoil herself. The next moment she was up again, walking back wherever she came from.

* * *

I wasn’t sure about what to do on the following day. As I entered the breakfast room with Peter by my side, I noticed that my ally was already seated at the table, a magazine in hand.

“Good morning” she said, raising her eyes towards my small friend with an embarrassed smile. Without hesitation, Peter took a seat right next to her and began chattering merrily about his plans for the day.

I didn’t utter a single word. I waited for her to finish her tea before stopping the child’s speech with a sign of my hand. “We are due to start our investigations this morning” I started calmly, “but first, we are going to write home”

“Yes! I wrote granddad the other day, but he did not reply. He never does” Peter added enthusiastically.

“I am going to write to Achilles straight after breakfast. I am going to ask him to send some assistance over here”

“Why?” Hope asked, looking at me with curiosity and a little irritation, “I don’t need any help”

“I think you do. Especially so after yesterday night”

She didn’t make a move, if not for her eyes who darted up to me. “Oh, really?”

“What happened yesterday night?”  
“Nothing concerning you, little one” I said, “but there will be consequences. I will inform the Mentor personally”

“And what will you tell him?” she asked, returning to her reading with an apparently careless expression, “that you heard me talking with a former ally, trying to convince him to get back his mind?”

“Yeah, sure. And you were very persuasive in doing so, weren’t you? A pity that your womanly charms didn’t work”

This words were the last straw that made the camel’s back break. As soon as I finished uttering them my friend had stood up, ready to defend herself.

“How dare you, Liam! How dare you interfere with my business!”

“This is not your business, Hope. This is about _us_ , all of us. The Brotherhood!” I replied, finally losing my temper as well.

“You’re very well and good with your rigmaroles, Liam. You really are. A true pity that the same words are not valid for yourself. What would you have done, if it had been _you_ ?”

“I would never have given an appointment to a traitor in my own house, let alone cutting down security in an Assassin cove because I wanted to meet a Templar.... How much do you want to put at stake to make out with someone who’s given up our cause and has joined the enemy? God knows if this is the first time this has even happened!” I blurted out furiously. Was I really angry with her, or was I just disappointed by myself? Maybe it was my own regret that made me talk that way.

Hope took a breath and sat down before answering.

“There is no God, Liam. Not for you, not for me. He has forsaken us long ago. Also, I will not accept to be slandered in my own house any further. If you have anything else to say about what you have spied upon with no right whatsoever, you’d better leave”

“I don’t think we’ll have to get that far”

“Let’s pray so”

 

 


	9. Awakening

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I am sorry for the delay. I know it has been a while since the last update..... this period has been very hard for me. Anyway, things kind of sorted out :) . Please let me know if you enjoy! (Also, my English sounds a bit rusty. It will get better later on, I promise)

We had just left New York when the news of the gas factories’ destruction reached me. Then silence for a while. The whole situation didn’t matter any longer now: the only thing we needed to focus upon was the war. Needless to say, the British were gradually winning this war, on both Colonial and European fronts. Every French outpost and fort trembled in front of their mortars and cannons, every soldier knew well the cruel faith awaiting him on the battlefield. The only hope we had to change what seemed inevitable was to kill with a precise aim.

“Liam. We are glad to hear you have had a safe journey” the Mentor told me with tired eyes and a hint of a smile.

“Yes...” I looked away from him, feeling my cheeks redden. I had told my mentor more or less what had happened in New York, and even though I had omitted the most embarrassing details, I knew that he  understood  Anyway, if he was as upset as I was, I never knew since he did such a good job at hiding his feelings.

“Good morning, grandpa” Peter greeted, but was ignored.

“We have news to discuss. Are you sure you want your young assistant to to hear this?” Achilles went on.

“Aye. He’s a smart fellow” I replied confidently.

Nonetheless, my master took a few coins from his pocket and handed them to Peter. “Go and get yourself something to play with”.

Peter smiled and grabbed  the money. In a matter of seconds, he had disappeared down the boreau’s stairs and into the street.

“He was sorry disappointed you didn’t answer to his letters”

There was no response, and I loathed myself for even bringing this up.

“I am sorry” I added.

There were unspoken words among us. Even though I had more confidence with him than any other Assassin – I would never admit it, but sometimes I considered him more like a father than a Mentor- there were some things which I just wasn’t able to tell him. Right then, I longed to tell him how much I missed little Connor I couldn’t bring myself to speak the words. I couldn’t stand to feel his pain once more, or mine. I couldn’t reopen those wounds.

“You will kill the Colonel Monroe” he said plainly after a short while. “We have received intelligence that he is travelling towards Albany. Your mission is to wait for his men to scatter through the area and and then strike. You will need to act fast: he will be well protected”.

“Sure he will”

“Shay is with him”

“I imagined as much” I said with little or no emotion.

“The expedition is due in some weeks . You’d better be in situ when they arrive”

“I will”. Even though the conversation was coming to an end, none of us had intention to stand up and say goodbye. There was still something pending in the air.

“What about Shay?” I said in the end.

“You mean, shall you kill him if you get the chance”

“I gladly would”

“Don’t you think I had thought this could happen when I spared his life?”

“What do you mean?”

“The night of his disappearance I could have killed him in a thousand different ways. I spared his life”

“Why?”

“He’s innocent, Liam. He _is_ a traitor and deserved death, but it will not be by your hand: he has suffered enough so far”

A part of me wanted to sight in relief. So I still had a chance to put things back in the right place. “What about Hope?”

“Let her be” the Mentor said, “we will talk no more of this”. He wasn’t angered, nor sad, not even worried. “One last thing” he added before letting me go, “you will not bring that child with you in this mission. Leave death out of his world... for now”

* * *

When I announced Peter that we would be splitting up his reaction was not one of the best ones.

“You will remain here with Achilles, little one”

“But he hardly ever acknowledges me!”

“He will take good care of you, I promise. He’s good with children. You’ll see”

“Will I train nonetheless’”

“Of course you will. Twice as hard”

This made him smile again and made me feel somewhat calmer. He was going to be safe. Nothing else mattered now.

* * *

Albany was a shadow of its former self. Right after I set foot on the harbour, I realised how war had taken its toll not only on the town itself, but on the people. What once where friendly, loud and rather active citizens were now barricaded in their own houses, terrified of getting out even to get food. Their attitude was justified by the ferocious and tense atmosphere the British had set. The soldiers’ aim was that of keeping order and to prepare everything for the incoming battle... at the expense of those poor souls.

As I strolled silently among the empty streets disguised as a pastor, I also noticed how well organised our enemies were-. Besides the copious amount of gunpowder and provisions they had, there was something more... something the French were missing. They were determined to keep the land. They fought for their king.

I spent about one week between hiding in a deserted hut and occasionally analysing the area. Sometimes I caught sight of my target, but he was always too well protected to be even approached. The people seemed to trust him. When they saw him around, they took confidence and some even dared to play some music in the main square. The Colonel smiled at them with benevolence and sometimes even stopped for a chat. His eyes, however, remained fixed on the target. Behind his benevolent expression hid the cunning of a Templar.

When I think back and I recall that day, I realise that for me the real battle began when I heard  Kasegowase’s piercing voice reaching my ears. He was standing on the top of the fort, musket in hand, screaming: “Traitor!”

‘Shay is here!’ the thought echoed through my mind, erasing any trace of doubt. No, I wouldn’t kill him, I decided instantly. I was going to eliminate the Colonel, the very same man who had shepherded him into that foreign creed, and then I would guide him back to reason, just as I had always done. It almost sounded _easy._ But nothing has ever been.

So I hid, waiting for my target to come near enough to me, and then strike. It would have been too risky to approach him face to face with so many soldiers standing right around him, not to talk about the high chances I had to be spotted by Shay. Eventually, I finally caught a glimpse of his frock coat coming near my hiding place and immediately jumped up, weapon in hand, ready for new blood.

The Colonel was a cunning man. He didn’t run, but pointed his flintlock at me. “You don’t stand a chance, Assassin!” he screamed.

“Really?” I laughed, rolling on the ground when the shot resonated and taking advantage of the noise to fire my weapon just above the Colonel’s ankle. The man screamed in pain. Even though his thick boots had somehow lessened the damage, he was still weakened and possibly incapacitated to run.  In a matter of seconds I was up again and I grabbed him by the collar. Just as I was about to cut his throat neatly and put an end to it all, a scream pierced the air. There was something familiar about it, a high pitch of combativeness rather than fear that made me turn my head back and made me loosen my grip.

Kasegowase. For a moment I stood in the middle of the battlefield, motionless, my eyes fixed on my friend’s bleeding neck.

‘There will be no mercy’ I realised then. _Dead. Kasegowase, my friend, my working partner, was dead. All by Shay’s hand._  

A shot fired a short distance away reminded me why I was there. It reminded me who I was, and made me focus again on the battlefield.  In the meanwhile, Monroe had taken advantage of my distress to flee and was now running as fast as he could, hoping to make it somewhere safe.

‘Silly man. You can’t be safe with an Assassin around’. I immediately began to give chase, and notwithstanding the fact that there were countless soldiers on their way to protect my target, I was much faster and stronger than any of them. Furthermore, Monroe was badly wounded so that he left bloody footprints on his way to a hypothetical shelter. In the end, the Colonel ran out of luck and he was forced to take shelter into a small house to take a breath. It took me a moment to eliminate the guards standing to protect him. Then, before following him inside, in order to prevent n eventual escape, I took my flint in hand and provided to produce a few sparkles. In a matter of seconds the whole place was beginning to lighten up.

“We meet at last, Assassin” the Colonel greeted me as I entered the cottage. He tried to walk backwards, but there was no escape for him now.

“The pleasure is all mine” I replied, and then I quickly jerked my elbow and threw a knife right towards his throat.

The blade cut through the fabric and slicked to his clavicle as the man uttered a cry of pain.

“This is the end of the track, is it not?”  
“...no!”  
The next scream was suffocated by another blow. This time I hit hard on his nose, and the horrifying noise of breaking bone was soon overtaken by another scream of pain.

“You have converted Shay to this fool’s cause. Why?” I screamed

“Because it is the right thing. And he is excellent at killing... he has vowed to kill you all. Even you... and Hope. Especially this.... girl. He won’t stop until he’s done”

I couldn’t believe my ears. “You liar! Shay would never harm her!” I exclaimed, plunging my blade right into his chest.

* * *

The sky had turned red.  There were lumps of ash and dust in the air, and the sun seemed to set slowlier than usual. The battle was over. The French had lost.

From above the roof I had climbed on, I watched as the corpses of defeated soldiers were carefully removed by the survivors of their faction. Even Kasegowase’s was among them. I had sword our Mentor that I’d have it returned to the Manor so that he could have the proper honours. Right now, however, the only thing I wanted was to let tears out. I told myself that it was because of the ashes, but I knew well that this wasn’t true. I just wanted to escape. I wanted to go sail back home and discover that it had all been just a dream. A nightmare.

Suddenly,  a voice caught my attention.

“Aye. He has died with dignity and served the Father of Understanding with faith.”

“So have you, Shay. I am sorry for him. He had great expectations from you, you know, and this ring proves that. You know what it means, right? He wants you to take his place”

_The ring._ I couldn’t believe that.  So Shay was going to become a Templar Knight.

Under my angry eyes I saw Jack Weeks walking in my direction and then disappearing among a crowd of British officers. Shay didn’t join him. He stood just a few feet below me, looking at the ring in his hand with a thoughtful expression. For a moment, below those foreign robes  I recognised the vulnerable expression of the drunk orphan I had rescued less than a decade before. Deep within, I knew he was the same Shay I had known and loved as a brother.

Suddenly, he raised his head and his eyes met mine. Without fully acknowledge it, I felt my face wrinkle in a raging grin, as to say: ‘ I know what you have done’. Still, none of us managed to look away.  Even from that distance, I recognised his lips speaking my name in a whisper and his eyes fill with mixed emotions: surprise, fear, hatred, longing.... Everything stood still and silent for one long moment. Then, I turned my back at him and jumped down.

It was only much later on, when my ship had hoisted anchor, that I realised I could have killed, that I could have revenged Kasegowase, but didn’t.


	10. Family

New York's streets were empty that late in the evening. After a long day’s work, sailors ambled around their gear, repairing old nets or scraping their boats clean while women of every age and colour rushed back to their homes to prepare dinner and lighten up the fire.

 For once I, too, had someone to go back to, even though I wasn’t sure I could consider this ‘someone’ family. Not after all that time. Not after what had happened.

My mother's home was a modest cottage located in the eastern part of the city. I hadn’t been too surprised to find her in the suburbs: I knew she would never abandon the simple way of life she had always led. So here I was now, staring at some sad gardening tools scattered in the little front garden in a desperate attempt to delay knocking. I had almost convinced myself that the whole thing had been a terrible idea when a metallic noise made me realise that it was too late to go away.

"Liam" my mother said simply, opening the door. She looked so much older than I had thought when peering at her in the market, but still... this was the first time in years I had her straight in front of me.  

"Liam" she repeated, and now I could sense she was thinking whether embracing me was a good idea or not.

Finally, she decided for the latter and she moved aside to let me in.

"You... You go first" I offered, and then I followed her inside.

As I had guessed, none of my mother’s old habits seemed to have changed. The inside of her home was simple but clean and neat, with skeins on every sill; the curtains hanging by the windows had been patched various times with extreme accuracy and so had been the tablecloth of the small room she guided me in which I took to be both the kitchen and the dining room. Notwithstanding of the accuracy with whom the house was cared, I couldn’t help but think that the whole place stank of loneliness and mould.

"You drink tea?"

"I... Fine"

She approached the kettle hissing on the fire, moving slowly around it as if she was afraid to burn herself. I watched silently as she poured the dark liquid into a clean cup.

"You like it strong, yes?" She asked.

I nodded. My father liked it that way, too, and the thought tied my throat in even faster a knot. 

"So" she said in the end, "what have you been up to? You never said anything in your letters"

I waited for a moment, unable to focus entirely on the situation. For the first time in years, I realised that my mother had _learned_ how to read and write. She had probably done so that she could understand the short and lied-filled letters I sent her at times. If they could even be called letters. Right now, the feel of her eyes, green like mine but much more pliant made me feel like a little child again. I knew she wanted an answer.

"I... I am quartermaster of a merchant ship. We mainly sail in the North, but sometimes  we go as far as Mexico and Columbia"

"Sounds like a good job" she commented, embarrassed.

No one spoke for a little time. ‘It has been a terrible idea to come here’ I thought again for the millionth time. I had just decided to stand up and leave when my mother moved forward and brought her chair nearer to mine.

"Do you have a family?"

"No... Not yet"

"Do you plan on having one any time soon?" I looked at her face again, for a longer time now. She was almost smiling. I almost smiled, too.

"Yes" I lied, "of course"

"Good. I... Ever since your little brother Jamie died I longed to hold a baby in these old arms of mine" 

The memory hit like a punch in the stomach, urging me to change the subject before grief overcame us both.  

"You know, I... I felt surprised by your letter... it is not the first time you ask to see me, but... this time felt different" I finally managed to say, "I was... yes, surprised. As I have been every single Christmas, when I receive your present"

"Do you like it?" She said, finally lightning up, "see, I am working on the next one" 

I nodded at the half-knitted jumper sitting in a basket next to her feet, "I haven't decided about Shay's one though. I don't know whether he prefers blue over yellow. Is... Is something the matter?" She asked then, noticing my troubled expression. She could still read me like an open book... Would I tell her? Could I open up and fill the void?

"Shay...." 

"Say no more. I... I am sorry he passed" she said promptly, leaning forward and taking my hands in hers. 

"How would you know?" 

"I know you, Liam. Even after all this time, I can still tell when you are happy, or uncomfortable, or... Or sad. I know he was like a brother to you"

I looked away, embarrassed. "I know"

"I am sorry about it all, Liam. But I think we can start again. Together" she squeezed my hands harder now. Her strength sprung right from desperation.

I fixed my eyes in hers and my mind went back in time, when I was still a boy. I saw the younger version of the woman standing in front of me laying the table and welcoming Father after a long day's work. I saw her cleansing my face after I cried and hugging me when I couldn't sleep. Then, my father’s voice arose from the darkness of my memory, speaking of the many deaths our family had suffered before and after my birth, about my tiny brothers and sisters, dead before even learning how to walk. He was so proud of me, he used to say. I was the strongest. I was the one who lived.

 I remembered when I first met Shay and all that had happened back then. I pictured my father's execution, how he took the blame for what I had done... And then I came back to that dark and small room, to my mother almost kneeling to the ground, her hands still holding mine. Could I do this to her? My life was a dangerous one, perils and threatens paved my way. What if I died? Would she be able to go through that much suffering once more?

"It... I don't know"

"Mother. Call me mother, and.. tell me that we will try, Liam. Promise me"

"Mother..."

I gulped and my instinct brought to inspect the room to find an escape route. There was none. It was us and our responsibilities, now.

"We can start over. When you have the time... You can visit me"

"After all that's happened...."

"I don't blame you, Liam. This world we live in is unfair. You were only a boy"

"I have my faults. My life... It is full of them"

"Let's just try and leave that behind. You promise?"

"I promise" I lied, looking at her face one last time.

* * *

“I guess it has been useless to spend a whole hour in the bathtub if you’re covered in sweat from head to foot again forty minutes later”

“But it is worth it, is it not?” I asked, pulling the blanket up my chest and stretching my arm forward to caress Dora’s cheek.

“It has” she laughed, letting her fall on the bed again and nestling on my arm.

“So will you tell me what is wrong? You didn’t say you were coming. Hell lot of luck my parents have gone to my sister’s for the week or I couldn’t have let you in”

“I thought you liked surprises”

“I do. But I don’t like it when you are evasive. So... has your ship docked early?” she was now lying on her belly, her breast barely covered with the sheet. I had to make an effort to remember I hadn’t been a hundred percent sincere to her about my work. Not yet.

“Yes. Part of the cargo had to be dumped in the ocean. A storm weighed us down  and we had to do it. Less cargo, less stops”

“I like the sound of that. Well, answer my question”

I looked around the room, feeling uncomfortable. “I’d rather avoid the subject”

“Is it so bad?”

_I have just lied to my mother. Of course it is bad._

“It is just... I have met someone I hadn’t seen in years. And that was sad. And it bothered me” I said, sitting up and reaching for the drink I left on the side table. I gulped it all down, then felt brave enough to snuggle under the covers and start kissing my beloved again. In the end, it was she to delicately push my lips away before we pushed it too far... again.

“I wonder what my parents would say if they stepped in here and found me in their bed with a man whom I have been seeing for ‘some time’. Quite a lot of time actually, but that, they don’t know” she said with a flirtatious tone. However, I could sense there was something edgy in her voice.

“I wish... I wish you could say ‘fiancé’” the word itself made me blush and get nervous. There was no doubt whatsoever I was in love with Dora, but I just felt strange to pronounce _that_ word out aloud.

“We never spoke about marriage” Her eyes were fixed in mine now, careful and alert.

“We can... if you like”

The only problem in the way was that no one besides maybe Hope and Peter knew about our relationship. I had been introduced to her parents – two honest people running a tailor shop- but I had the feeling they weren’t too happy about their daughter marry a sailor. An alleged one, at least.

“What about doing it now? We could... I don’t know, get in the church nearby and do it. And then... then you’d be my husband. We wouldn’t have to hide anymore”

For a long moment I considered it. I pictured Dora, her long raven hair loose on her back, standing in front of the priest while swearing to face with me whatever problems the future might present us...

“I gladly would, but duty calls me. I have to be off soon” I reluctantly said.

“No! Stay a little longer” she pledge, taking my hand and pressing it hard against her abdomen. I could sense fear in her words, as if she was certain that she’d never see me again if she let go. There was something in her touch, though...

“Are you with child?” my voice came out strange, as if didn’t belong to me.

“No, I...” she moved away, uneasy “I am not. And I guess you saw to that all right”

“I did”

Silence fell in the room. Outside, the sun was slowly setting and it sent beautiful streaks of pink and yellow all around. Soon, the stars were going to perk down on us, shining in the firmament, holding the world still.

“Would you like to have a baby?” I asked as my eyes were still fixed outside the window.

“Well... you should have asked me a little while ago” she replied before leaning forward and kissing me again. Unfortunately, time was running out for me.

“I... I will think about it. About this whole ... marriage thing. If you want me to”

“Of course. And then you will let me know. And then you’ll talk to my parents. And then...”

“And then we’ll have a rather long talk, after which...” I immediately realised that this was not the right time for a confession, so I changed route, “after which we will discuss about where to live. I want a proper place for you to stay, my love. Maybe... maybe I know one. In the North. It’s near Boston” I finished lacing up my boots and then I turned to her. “I hate to go”

“I love you” she said after a last kiss.

“I love you too. I will be back soon for you, my darling. Never forget it”

* * *

 

“Liaaaaaaam!!” Peter screamed running down the Manor’s stairs as soon as he caught sight of me. I couldn’t help but laugh at his genuine outburst of happiness.

“How have you been doing, my little one?”

“I have had great fun. Achilles has trained me very very hard, and then we played cards. He taught me chess and he showed me how to draw and how to sign and seal parchments and then....” his enthusiastic words were like an uncontrollable river. There was much emotion in his voice as he told me about literally _everything_ he had been doing. When he was in such a mood I would ignore him until he stopped or my head would start aching. Furthermore, I didn’t want to spoil him.

“Welcome back, Liam” the Mentor welcomed me. Once more, he looked completely oblivious to Peter’s presence, so I dismissed the boy.

“How have been things going?” I asked, looking distractedly around me. The kitchen of the Manor looked a complete mess with plates several days old piling up on the table and discarded cutlery scattered everywhere. I sighed. My teacher was a stubborn man and if he had decided no one was allowed to touch his things, no one would.

“As of late” he replied plainly. Instead of guiding me into the dining room as he always did – a privilege a few had- he gestured me to take a seat in his study.

“You are two days late”

I nodded, avoiding his eyes by pretending to be interested in the view outside the window.

“What happened?”

“Things at sea are never quite what we expect them to be”

“True. I guess that an unplanned stop slows thing down, too”

I didn’t reply, but I did feel my cheeks burning furiously. “It would”

“Hope told me about it”

This time he had all my attention. “Hope?” right then, I wished the ground could open up and swallow me. What had she witnessed? The visit to my mother? To Dora? Both? The sole idea sent creeps all over my body.

“Yes. She’s had her little revenge, I suppose” he commented, leaning back on his chair with a sinister expression.

“I... I really can’t understand Hope. She is not a little girl anymore, and these games aren’t fun. Not for me”

“Liam, seeing your mother or... visiting... a lady is not something to be ashamed of”

“She is not _a_ lady”

“I know. I imagined as much”

I turned my head, barely believing what I was hearing. “But I failed my duty”

“You have never, not even once missed your responsibilities. How could I be mad at you?”

“God bless” I sighed, relieved, and this made him smile.

“It is Hope’s turn to find a boy now, if she hasn’t already”

“Well, she’s kept it hidden rather well if she has”

“I know her well. She’s fierce and she would never admit it. She’d be capable of locking the poor fellow up and never show him the sunlight again to hide him from us”

“She sure receives the pleads of a great deal of young businessmen....” I could barely believe my ears as I spoke. What on Earth was I just doing? Well, for once I was indeed enjoying myself and relaxing a little after the anxiety and grief of the last weeks.

“I imagine she’d be the leader anyway. If she ever decides to settle down with a man, the poor boy will have to accept her as leader... in all fields”.

I laughed heartily. “Oh, God. Who would even have guess that a conversation like this could take place... here, even? I can’t believe you are gossiping!” I exclaimed, “Not too long before we start calling you ‘Old Man’!”

I knew I had pushed too far and that I was being too confidential... however, the thing didn’t seem to bother my Mentor at all.

“You are right. I am getting old... only, not as fast as I wish I were”

There was silence a little bit as the air grew gloomy and sad in the room. The place was very silent; recruits and tired Assassin had found another area where to play dice and experiment silly games at the end of the day.

“If you ever do get married, Liam, don’t let your children live in a chaotic and troublesome city. Bring them here”

“I would like nothing better”

We didn’t speak about Kasegowase that evening. We didn’t speak about his dead body lying in the sacred ground, finally joining his ancestors’ in his warrior sleep. We needed to focus of what was in front of us, or the past threatened to overwhelm us with ghastly memories and regrets.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So... this time there is a little pause in narration and we get to explore a little of Liam's background and personal life. I was impressed to read his story in the Animus database and I think that it deserved a little more attention.
> 
> If you enjoyed, please leave a comment! I really appreciate that!


	11. Darkness

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello everyone! I sincerely give my thanks to anyone who has spent a little time commenting my story, or is following it. I really appreciate your support! It gives me the energy to keep going :)

September. October. November... and then, finally December. Three months had passed since I had met my mother and I had last visited New York; three blasted months filled with paperwork and trifle missions that would lead nowhere. 1758 was at our doorstep, yet there seemed to be only dire news for us.

Bad news came in almost weekly. At first, it was only our trading posts: at first some of them were compromised by accidental fires started by local gangs, then others simply stopped any kind of contact with the base. This compromised heavily our ever thinner finances and confused our schemes, our allies, our potential new recruits. Then came the sudden disappearance of our infiltrates. One after another, news of death or exile reached us, spreading panic and chaos among the ranks. Precious information was lost, alongside a security in our moves which would surely pave the future ahead.

“Shay” was all our Mentor said about it with tightened lips.

Finally, Hope came back to the Homestead and walked firmly up to the Manor, determined to talk to me. I saw her through the ground floor’s study, anticipating what was surely going to result in an argument. Surprisingly enough, it started rather peacefully.

“We need to shake him” was the first thing she said, looking towards our Mentor. Instead of coming to greet her, he kept sitting in the dining room, motionless, unbeknown of Hope’s presence, eyes fixed on the empty space above the mantelpiece where the painting he loved so much used to hang.

I leaned against the table, sighing. “Easier said than done”.

My eyes went to the ledger, the records still dated September of 1755. In some ways, it felt like everything had remained still since the outbreak of the fever. The deafening silence surrounding the house, the porcelain cups on the small table upstairs, the total darkness after sunset...

“This can’t go on much longer. Your leadership has been good these past three years, but we both know it won’t be enough if we count on rebuilding what has been lost”

“So what do you expect me to do? March in that dining room and announce him that his mourning time is over? Present him with the disastrous reports of the last months and say that it’s his doing?” I turned angrily towards her, the exhaustion of the last weeks finally draining every drop of patience I had left.

“Oh, I am sorry. It looks like we like playing the victim, don’t we?” her voice didn’t sound bothered, or upset for the matter. Her calmness angered me even more.

“The victim? Correct me if I am wrong, but I don’t have anywhere to escape when things get tight. I don’t flee to New York for business and then fool around with traitors!” I was face to face with her now, and fully enjoying my little victory: she jumped up from her seat, features distorted by rage.

“How dare you!” she hissed, furious, grabbing my arm, “you don’t know anything!”

“I do know what I saw” this time it was I to be calm and unmovable. Still, I kept my tone low.

“Don’t talk about my mistakes, Liam, because I can hurt you, and you know that if you push any further I will”

I wasn’t sure about what she was referring to, but I suddenly felt pain and anxiety clutching to me, pulling at my tattered cloak, reminding me that no matter how hard I tried, grief was always around the corner, threatening to destroy me.  Hope had never gone that far, though; we had always reasoned about everything together, supported each other through hard times, cultivated our friendship in what had turned into a brotherly affection... and now we, too, seemed destined to fall apart.

“What do we do, then?”

“I will search some kind of mission you’ll both look into. In the meanwhile, you take care of removing those sad cloths from the tables... and possibly hang the landscapes back where they used to be”

“You mean you want me to take Achilles on a mission? Are you out of your mind? He hasn’t been training for months now!”

“He can look after himself. It will do him good”  
“No, won’t!”

“Is anything the matter?”

Our Mentor must have listened to the last chunk of conversation, ever since I turned my back and stopped keeping an eye on him; now stood in front of us, his piercing look seeing straight into our minds. Even though Hope and I had endured decades of training, both physical and psychological, we still shrank when he raised his voice, we still felt like little children caught stealing biscuits from the cupboard. But we did not fear his hand, or his tongue, because we knew he would never hurt us. Not when he was in his rightful mind, at least.

Surprisingly enough, he didn’t take any offence in what he had eavesdropped. Instead, he mildly stated that everything was going to remain exactly where it was, especially the porcelain cups. Then he left, and we heard his heavy footsteps climbing the stairs.

“We are in dire straits, Hope. You’re right: we better get moving”

* * *

In a matter of days, Hope had found the perfect occasion for us to leave the Homestead: a new British base seemed to be built in the North, but the newcomers were badly organised and ill-reputed. It was very unlikely that they would thrive there... all it would take to destroy their plan was a little push, and with a little look one strategic strike could prove fatal for them. After all, it was a luxury to get new huts built with the war going on, but powder kegs could easily be located, and lit....

So we made our plan. There wasn’t much time, so we established that the details would be refined aboard the Aquila. The idea of sailing again didn’t set my mood, but it was certainly an appeal for my Mentor.

“I haven’t been on a ship for quite some time now” he said as he made his preparation, “And I am quite curious to see how you are going to captain it”

This was perhaps the only start Shay had had on me. He was a good captain, loved by his crew and made for the job. On the other hand, I felt too stiff, too... restrained while sailing. I focused on the open sea ahed of me; Shay focused on the crew instead, and that seemed to be working better. There was nothing to fear now, though, I kept repeating myself, because Robert Faulkner was going to be by my side. Yeah. I certainly wasn’t looking forward to his enthusiasm either.

Surprisingly enough, travelling for so many days didn’t prove to be as unnerving as I had expected. My first mate kept silent most of the time, mildly stating his advices every once in a while, and Hope kept mostly below deck, shouting firmly at every crew member who dared approach her cabin and planning what to do once back in New York. Nonetheless, when land was sighed from the crow’s nest, it still felt as a relief.

* * *

We reached solid ground by rowboat. The water was icy, breath coming out in freezing puffs at each ragged breath. When we finally pulled in the oars and and stepped out, our soaked boots weighted us down, making the whole process even more difficult.

At least, luck was on our side when it came to finding shelter. We decided to stop for the night; we needed rest, and light if we wanted to formulate to formulate a decent plan. So we sat around our small fire, silent, each lost in his thoughts while outside the sky grew darker and darker.

“It has been a long time since we’ve been out here by ourselves” Hope said after a while.

“It has. Let’s hope it’s not the last” I commented quietly.

“I wouldn’t be too pessimistic. We have the element of surprise on our side, and it looks like there’s an inexperienced hand behind all this” she replied, eyeing me with suspicion.

“Not too much, if they have managed to settle on this frost” said at least our Mentor.

“What would they even want up here anyways? You spoke about an outpost, but it looks unlikely”

“A new trade empowered by slaves”

“Trade?” I looked up, surprised.

“Yes. Ice-cutting”

“Why would someone need so much ice?” Hope commented, “I didn’t even know about the existence of such trade”.

“Voice are beginning to circulate that ice will be the latest trend in years to come. Of course the British are updated on the matter and are planning ahead” our Mentor said briefly, without looking away from the fire.

“Well, we could set an eye on it. It’s not like we don’t need consistent financial support of late”

 “No. We would rather starve than exploit human souls for profit. Ice-cutting is a slave’s work. No other man would undergo that terrible process”

_Slaves_. I could hardly believe my ears. Sometimes it felt hard to work for the welfare of people who still believed that men should be rated differently on behalf of the colour of their skin. Still, I didn’t feel righteous in judging them too harshly since there were times when I, too, was like that, when prejudice would drive my instincts and overcome my judgement. 

Hope stood, unable to bear the hurt in our teacher’s voice, and laid a hand on his shoulder. “We’ll put an end to it. I promise” she said softly, almost like a whisper.

He didn’t reply, his eyes lost in the fire.

“Here. You have some blood crusted over your neck” she said after a little while, extracting a clean handkerchief from her pocket and immediately started rubbing the muck with determination, satisfaction showing clearly on her face when it was gone.

“You really can’t help keeping yourself busy, can you?” I commented when she decided that a smear of blood on my wrist had to disappear, too.

No, I can’t” she chuckled, eyes full of childish mischief.

“Well, we are glad of that” our Mentor said approvingly.

* * *

 

It was the startling, piercing sound of screaming that woke me up on the following day. At first, laying still in the dark, I couldn’t quite place the noise, nor decide who it belonged to. Then, all of a sudden, it hit me: at first the cold, then the cursing with no answer... it almost felt like working at the docks again, loading ships following the rhythmic, meaningless obscenities workers kept shouting to encourage themselves to lift another barrel, to move another step. This time, though, it was an enemy’s voice to impart the orders, a cruel whip to leave crimson scars on men’s shoulders, and the mere thought gave me the strength to spring upright and take hold of the situation. Before leaving the comfort of our hiding place, I turned back and carefully placed the skins I had used to cover myself for warmth upon Hope’s frail shoulders.

“Liam” Achilles greeted me upon seeing my figure appear out of the small cave, “my watch is not over yet. You still have some time to rest”

“I don’t want to rest. Not if there are enemies crawling nearby and men forced to work in these conditions” I said emphatically as I stopped right next to him by the slope of the hill..

“I imagined as much. We need to use caution as we cannot know what there is on the other side”

“The other side?”

His long, brown finger pointed a spot ahead of us. “Look. The fog is slowly surrendering to the light, allowing a little view across. By activating my Eagle, I can clearly see a ship’s mast on the other side of the island”.

“Do you think there could be a Templar hand in this?” the words escaped my lips without my consent and sank slowly in the silence among us.

However, I never got his answer since Hope’s voice interrupted our conversation.

“Are you up to a run? I can clearly see a tree on top of this very hill, even though the path looks rather steep. We will surely get a better view of the place from up there”  
We both accepted readily, impatient to get to work as soon as we could.

Climbing uphill proved more challenging than expected due to the noticeable amount of snow that had fallen during the night so that, when we finally reached the top, we found ourselves out of breath and soaked from ankle to knee.

“There is quite a view from up here, really” I breathed when we finally stopped. Below us, a dark and shining sea foamed ferociously under the pale sun, threatening to engulf the whole island we stood upon. The working site being built under our feet looked bigger than we had expected, with swarms of men moving constantly in every direction, around machines and even raking the soil, probably preparing it for the upcoming trade.

“Liam, Hope. Before you activate the Eagle, let us have our meal” our Mentor called us, settling down on a log and handling us our yearned breakfast. While eating, he proceeded to explain the newly- formed plan in his mind, and I decided with relief that maybe there was still a chance to have his old self back after all.

“And now, you can climb that tree and take a look around” he said at last, “I will remain here and watch your back”

We were waiting for nothing more: in the blink of an eye, our bodies were huddled up on the strong tree branches, settled for activating our senses.

“Ready?” Hope said in a whisper, before closing her eyes and allowing her Eagle to gaze upon the world around us.

Eagle vision demands stillness, focus... a purpose, even. Following the disastrous weeks I had just gone through, it took me an immense amount of energy to activate my inner sense, to conciliate all the stimuli coming from the outside in a whole, compact vision of the world around me.  When I finally felt able to bring myself together and experience the Eagle, Hope’s swift movements brought me back to my ordinary self with the knowledge of being surrounded by enemies, but little else. On the other hand, my friend seemed much more agitated.

 “We have to go” she said simply, hurrying back, her peace growing faster and faster as she started descending the hill.

“Hope, wait!” I exclaimed, increasing my stride to keep up with her.

She became even more impatient when we returned to the small encampment, eyes darting in all directions before choosing the path that lead straight down hill.

“Hope, we need to talk about this” Achilles said from behind my back, rushing forward to grab Hope by the arm. “Please”

“There is nothing to discuss. We need to take action, now” she replied angrily, wriggling out of the friendly hold.

“What is going on?” I demanded, more confused than before. With Hope darting downhill, the chances of being discovered increased by the minute. Yet, I had to admit that her eagle was stronger than mine, and she must have sensed either an immediate threat or a friendly soul wherever it was that she was going. It was not until the very last moment, when she started to set foot upon an icy overhang that I understood that she had altogether different intentions.

“Shay! Shay, come out if you dare!” she screamed with all her might.

It is difficult to describe the feeling that pervaded me. It was only a shiver at first, rising from the bottom of my back and slowly making its way up. Then, it transformed in an overpowering source of heat taking over my senses and leaving me breathless. It was Achilles’ hand, firmly gripping to my arm that restrained me from jumping down and go looking for him.

“Patience. Be still, Liam, and look ahead. Maybe it is not all for the worst”.

In the meanwhile, Hope kept shouting and shouting, a ghastly sight for the men walking below who regarded her hooded figure with fear, almost reverence. In the end, attracted by the noise, it was no one less than the drunken Templar Gist to appear from the crowd, his strides slow and wobbly.

“I cannot believe it” Hope hissed as soon as he came into her view range, “of all disgusting Templars... you!”

Gist smirked, raising a hand to stop a group of redcoats who had hastened below us from pointing their musket at us.

“Let them speak”

“We are here to talk to Shay Cormac” I said passionately, “where is he?”

“Shay is busy. He is very busy, as a matter of fact, and has no room for meeting old acquaintances... or deadly enemies, I should better say. So if you please crawl back where you came from, I might consider sparing your lives”

As he spoke, I felt fully aware of the danger we were exposing ourselves to. Was it really worth it, to endanger our life for a traitor?

“Or is it that you fear he might admit that joining you was a mistake?” our Mentor said calmly, inspecting Gist with coldness.

“Of all people, I shall not answer to you. If it was up to me, you’d be working down here, with the rest of your kin” the Templar laughed back.

His goading proves useless as we endured the humiliation of such foolish remark in silence, allowing Gist to make more and more noise with his cackling laugh so that in the end a rather bothered Shay come into view.

“What’s up with the noise? I’m trying to get these brainless monkeys to work, here” he said with the usual nonchalance.  

His words, though.  His words hit us harder than any blow and hurt like no knife would. _Brainless monkeys...._  Where had our teachings gone? How was it possible that he, of all men, was now trading other men’s life for something that would serve his new friends’ interests?

When he finally raised his eyes and met our astonished glares, both parties finally understood that there was no room for forgiveness.   

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> When Shay shift sides in the game, the Assassins suddenly look like the bad guys, threatening people and planning to poison the population with gasses... for no apparent reason. What about Templars’ wrong doing in the past? Shay suddenly forgets all that as he embraces the new Creed. Such a sudden change in perspective has left some troublesome holes....  
> So here is what Shay has become after transitioning into a Templar: he has embraced Templar’s doctrine, thus acting like any other of his new brothers. How far will he go?   
> I am always very curious to read anyone’s opinion on the matter... on anything related to Assassin’s Creed, as a matter of fact! If you want someone to discuss any aspect of AC Rogue’s plot... well, just know that I would be more than glad to have a chat about it :)  
> I hope you enjoyed this chapter... there is more coming soon!


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